Fans were shocked and disappointed on Sunday when the Good Old Games website appeared to have been shut down for “business and technical reasons.”

But the temporary closure and suggestive messaging was all a ruse. Today, representatives from Good Old Games confirmed that the “shutdown” was a marketing stunt.

Good Old Games managing director Guillaume Rambourg and co-founder Marcin Iwinski offered a profoundly weird mea culpa to those who felt burnt by the sudden, fake closure of their website. In a video, both men, clad in monk’s robes, bowed penitently repeating the mantra, “We have sinned. Forgive us.”